"Squak" Don turned and through up his arm to block a beak that was aimed at his heart the burlap bag strapped to his forearm worked as a shield absorbing some of the blow as his other hand brought down its knife into the beast's eye.

"SQUEEE" the bird screamed as it tried to pull away but Don didn't give it a chance as he moved his arms around the things neck he jerked it violently as a resounding crack was heard. Well resounding to him the sound was pitifully small and it was more like he felt the things neck cracking instead of hearing it.

"Swa.SsssWaaaaaa" As he let the bird go it collapsed making pitiful sounds not that Don could feel any pity for it he knew that this wouldn't kill the nightmarish creature only slow it down. It was one of the things they found out about their enemy they could take being stabbed in the brain 20 times without flinching but breaking their legs or necks would still cripple them well even then it was a temporary thing lasting only 20-30 seconds.

free'd from his current opponents he quickly moved to help another of his team members using the rock filled burlap bag that he previously used to stop a beak to break the leg of another bird. All around him similar scenes were playing out as the other teams fought against the unholy abomination of a chicken and a cassowary in the distance he could see Jace's team as the used some large two-handed clubs to bash away at the massive birds and he was suddenly filled with as sense of sympathy.

'Now I know how my dwarves felt when I had them fight' Dons sympathy wasn't for the birds of course but pour binary creatures that had died when he had them try and punch a vampire to death.

'Oh Bumbulbort Wartbeard my your strange name and love of rats forever be forgotten by the annals of history' turning to face his group as they finished crippling or killing the birds around Don spoke up

"Move to help team three! we need to keep the path ahead clear" At his shouted orders his group quickly move to help their companions at the front.

It had been like this for a while ever since he sent Andrew and Emmy out to 'Kite' the enemy they had been trying to fight their way through. He knew the idea would be risky but using small forces to scout and disrupt enemy movements was army basics at least he thought it was of course he wouldn't have ever guessed that the enemy would send two-thirds of its force to go pick of some small groups but he guessed the old idiom of divide and conquer existed here too well in their case it worked both ways they had easily broken through the birds that remained and made their way back to 'home' but in a way Don almost thought that was the enemy's plan all alone as after they had left the relative safety of the crystal clearing the had been hit by the 'Spawns'

spawns, random encounters, really they could call it anything but it basically boils down to the enemy's ability to make birds appear out of nowhere and ambush them. It always choice the most inopportune times as well like right now actually. they had been walking through a rather thick part of the forest that made it difficult for them to help each other and right on uqee they had been ambushed by a spawn and this was no ordinary ambush either they could feel it when ever there was a spawn they felt it like the world was twisting in a unnatural way. They were attacked by none spawned birds two the creatures that they didn't kill as they move forward eventually recovered and started to hunt them it was because of this they learned the difference between a spawn and just a normal run of the mill ambush.

Still they had a tough go at it the only thing really keeping them going was the weird medicine water they were able to make from what medicine they had, Jace called them potions but Don found it hard to call aspirin mixed in water as a potion.

"AHHH" the sudden sound of someone screaming drew Don's attention as he saw a group of birds drop down on team three their beaks and talons tearing through what little armor they had. Don cursed as he ran trying to get to the downed he doubted his team would get their in time but he didn't have to as a wave of rocks smashed into the birds as another team, team 4 if Don remembered correctly, fell on the birds with primitive hammers bashing out their brains in a flurry of fury and adrenaline the downed team was quickly healed up but the still bore wounds as they had started to ration what healing they had left. Finally catching up to the two teams Don quickly made sure that they were alright before sending them into the middle of the group as that position suffered less attacks as the enemy didn't seem to be able to spawn birds within their group and it was an 'Enemy' there was no way simple animals could act like the birds did organised ambushes, assaults, and even traps they all pointed to a higher intelligence one that knew their every move and position. If Don had ever doubted that the strange presence that Andrew and a few others felt he couldn't now their was too much evidence supporting it, and it pissed him off.

For Andrew and his team things were going better but no less as tough as he jumped over the head of a nearby bird having used his spear as an impromptu pole to jump he landed a kick on another of the bloodthirsty ninja chickens the now dazed bird couldn't do anything as the boy grabbed its neck and used its awkwardly proportioned body against it to judo throw it onto the back of the confused bird he just jumped over the sound of his spear whistling through the air as it struck a bird that tried to attack his back piercing through its open beak. Grabbing the shaft of the spear he jerked it to his left with a small movement insuring that it was stuck in the bird before violently jerking it to his right spinning his entire body in the process the bird in question didn't even have time to tweet as its jaw was brutally broken.

Andrew grimaced as the creature fell he hated this kind of spectacle fighting it left him to exposed like right now unfortunately he had to since it was his job to make a spectacle. His spear spun around him as he did the simple maneuver while twirling a stick wasn't a intrinsically difficult thing to do it was more than eye catching enough for the birds as they surrounded him clicking their beaks and hissing menacingly.

"Yeah that's it you dumb fucks come look as mister Andrew makes you all disappear" Andrew whispered to no one in particular as the birds moved juuust close enough for the five or so nets the had made to drop on them with a startled squawk most of them disappeared into the weird pocket dimension thing containers seemed to make for some reason. Damn that pissed him off while he was certainly fine with being ignorant about most things he hated not knowing why something worked especially if that something was the only thing standing between him and a murder of Ninjickens? ... no that wasn't a good name for the damn things either. He didn't know what Emily was so pissed off about but honestly he thought that given their circumstances she could forget about it. They hadn't contacted Don or Jace for almost thirty minutes now this whole lack of information sharing was starting to make him anxious. What if their was some kind of super chicken a chicken of chickens the chicken queen who knows he didn't know really that last thing he wanted was to be left in the dark about anything. He also didn't want to piss Emily off the two of them were acting as team leaders and the last thing they need was to be bickering while surrounded Murickens nope ok combing a word with chicken just isn't going to work honestly chicken was a stupid word Andrew wished he could go talk to the guy that made that word and convinces him to call the bauks or clucks or something!

He didn't know why he was mad at that other than the reason that he wanted to be it distracted him from having to make the difficult choice of learning the overall picture or maintaining the group dynamic both of those things were important if they wanted to live and he was racked with indecision on what to do which was also dangerous, but who could blame him 9 hours ago he was playing a video game and now he was standing under a tree of clovers covered in giant chicken blood. He had done pretty well all things considered so why did he still have to make life or death choices he's had his fun so hed like to turn the game off and go to bed now ... no, nothing, anyone ... figures.

Sighing to himself Andrew resolved himself to go talk to Emily he might not be good at speaking but he was pretty sure he could convince her to drop the grudge she was holding at least long enough for them to survive the Birdageddon ...Birdapocalypse nope nothing if anything combining bird with the endings of well the endings was even worse than his last attempt so bad that Ninjikens was starting to sound good to him.

"Hey Andrew" David yelled as he ran up to him "We found the trail to the main group Lance thinks it's about an hour away"

"Thank god" one of the people in the tree said as they all started to climb down everyone was jovial at the prospect of getting back with the rest.

"Ok, ok everyone" Andrew spoke up interrupting the group "When we get back we'll make a barbeque." picking up the filled nets he hefted them over his shoulder "Ugh... I sure hope some one brought sauce."

"Oh man that would be awesome." "I don't know, chicken isn't really a barbeque meat" "What are you talking about Buffalo wings." ... Andrew smiled a little as he listened to his group argue.

Moving through the rough vegetation of the forest Andrew made it to where Emily should be waiting. Steeling himself for what was sure to be a difficult conversation.

'Ok Andrew it's better to make a decision rather than be indecisive I'm sure that once we start talking every will be solved I mean could go wrong.' Andrews inner monologue was interrupted by the sound of yelling.

"You're being an asshole Don we just got back from almost dying and now you're trying to do it again are you mental!" Emily was shouting into her walkie while passing around on top of a fallen tree trunk. Andrew awkwardly stood by as she continued to pase and yell, he was pretty conflicted on one hand he didn't have to convince Emily to talk to Don but on the other hand he really jinxed this whole thing.

"OK look we're not going to be able to scout the whole forest looking for the main group we don't even know were you guys are right now." Emily's said presumably to Don.

"We know where the main group is though" Andrew interrupted

""WHAT!!"" Both Emily and Don yelled Andrew cringed as he rubbed his ears he was slightly impressed that he managed to hear Don from the walky.

"How?" Emily asked as she hopped down from the algae covered log.

"How, we just looked for the markets we left" Andrew started to explain till he saw Emily's increasingly confused face.

"That was a thing?" Emily asked

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME THAT WAS LIKE THE SMARTEST PART OF MY ORIGINAL PLAN DID YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY FORGET DAMN" Andrew started to rant as he walked off leaving a slightly flabbergasted Emily.

"I did honestly forget though I mean we have been pretty distracted soooo...." Don said from the walky.

Emily sighed "well he's going to be modey now"

"Yeah don't you just hate it when someone you're supposed to be working with gets super modey" Don asked mockingly.

"IF LOOKS COULD KILL DON, IF LOOKS... COULD... KILL..."Emily said venomously "Damn... ok fine we can talk about this later when we meet up."

"Alright we should be able to meet up with each other in a few hours if we follow the marks we left before all hell broke loose and look i'm sorry things didn't go the way you thought it would but I need you to work with me here ok?" Don's voice existed the walky as Emily started moving

"I'll talk to you later Don bye" Emily switched the walky off as she set off to gather her and Andrews team's.